Mother wants me to get food for tonight’s meal. She has requested lasagna, made only with her special kind of cheese, special kind of sauce, and extra lean meat, all because she is on a “diet”, and cannot afford to consume unnecessary fats. With years I have lived with her, I have learned to nod my head and go along with whatever nonsense spews from her mouth.
Here I am, walking into Stop & Shop, on a Friday evening, at five p.m. Just the place I want to be; out in public on a Friday night. The good thing about grocery shopping later in the day, especially on a party night, is most people aren’t clogging up the isles and running over your ankles with the back of their carts; I can’t tell you how many times a toddler has rammed right into the back of my heel with their toy carts, giggling away back to their parent without so much as an ‘I’m sorry’. It like they think my pain is the most amusing thing in the world.
I walk through the automatic doors, a blast of air rushing at me, blowing my hair as a fan would to a model on a runway, only my hair doesn’t go straight back, it whips around my face, poking me in the eye and sticking to my lips. Goosebumps rise on my bare arms from the breeze once I pass the doors. Away from the attack of the vent, I comb my finger through the now knotted strands, wincing as I yanked out a knot.
Before grabbing a cart, I shrug on my jacket checking to make sure Kevin is in the same pocket I left him in. I found Kevin four months ago on one of my walks through the park. He was smack dab in the middle of walking traffic, so I picked him up and brought him over to a less crowded area, where he would be safer. As much as I tried to get the salamander off me, he wouldn’t move. I squatted till my knees ached and my ankles begged to be stretched, the longest thigh workout I have ever had, and from all that time, I think he fell asleep. On my hand. I brought him home and named the little guy Kevin. He is as long as my calligraphy brush, with a forest green body and a royal blue nose.
“You alive in there, bud?” I put my hand beside my coat pocket, waiting for the diva to make his entrance.
“You woke me from my nap, Ella,” Kevin drawls, ambling his way onto my outstretched palm. “But to answer your question.” He moves to stand on his hind legs. “I am very much still kickin.”
“I’m glad to hear that.” I wink in his direction and Kevin feels the needs to fall over and pretend he has fainted.
I roll my eyes as a laugh bubbles in my chest. I move my hand to my shoulder, giving Kevin his favorite spot to perch, and pulled one cart from the dozen or so left in the section.
“Lets go.” I pull out the shopping list and steer the cart in the direction to our first stop: bread.
***
We have whole grain bread, farm fresh eggs, as mother calls them, Newman’s Tomato and Basil sauce, regular ole’ chocolate chip cookies, for “cheat day”, and the ninety-five percent lean hamburger meat.
“What’s next on the list?” Kevin perks up from my shoulder.
“Cheese, and then the pasta.”
“Is the line at the deli long.” I can hear the groan in his voice as he strains his neck to look ahead.
“It doesn’t seem to be too long. Maybe four people at most.”
“More than three people in any enclosed area is classified as too many,” Kevin declares. “Can you just, leave me over by the, uh …” He trails off, looking around him. “The rack,” he concludes. “Right there, to your right.”
I turn my head to the side and see a rack of packaged fruit. “This rack?”
I sigh. “Kevin. I cannot leave a loose salamander by some food that somebody is going to buy.”
“Put me back in your jacket pocket, take the jacket off and hang it on the rack,” Kevin states matter of factly. If he has long enough arms, they would sure be crossed.
I look around me. “Do you know how suspicious that looks?” I whisper at him, my voice raising. I clear my throat.
“But, can’t you just, just leave me in the cart and put the cart over by the displays?”
He does have a point. Everybody leaves their cart off to the side in order to avoid any unnecessary games of bumper carts.
“If I put you in the pocket, you cannot leave the pocket.” I pick him up off my shoulder and steady him on my hand, bringing my hand up to my face. “Do you hear me Kevin?” He nods.
“I mean it.” I glance around at the deli section, noticing a couple of stares pointed in my direction. I lower my voice, not done with laying out the rules for Kevin. “You cannot go around and try to get a sample of the food around you either. One: that is unsanitary. And two: just no; don’t.”
“Your wish is my command, my lady.” He bows. Bows. He thinks this is funny; that stinker!
Rolling my eyes, I put Kevin back into my coat pocket, move the cart over near the rack and drape my jacket over the side. I give the jacket one last look, looking for a tiny blue nose to pop out, before joining the line for the deli.
The machine beeps and prints out a ticket for me; number 108 belongs to me. There are three people ahead of me, so I gaze at the display cases, looking for the cheese. Finding the one I want, I divert my gaze back to the deli area and people watch.
One woman is wearing a full-body cheetah jumpsuit, cue the shivers. A young child is pushing a cart, bumping into every display, as he tries to escape his mother, who is picking through the fresh vegetable aisle—I would be running too, kid. The kid is plowing on in the direction of precariously stacked apples, looking behind him as his mother finally notices his disappearance. Before she can warn him of the impending disaster, the end of his cart rams into the display, the apples rolling everywhere.
His mother mumbles something under her breath, something along the lines of, why did I ever consider having children was a good idea. Rushing over to her son, she schools the face of nononsense. I must admit, her reprimanding face is strong. As the kid bursts into tears, workers flock to the scene.
“That seems must unfortunate.” A voice remarks from behind me. Are they talking to me, or is this a rhetorical statement.
“It was a conversation starter sentence,” the voice chimes in.
Oh. That answers my question. Wait—
“Did I say that out loud?” I turn around and look at the person I have now participated in conversing with.
“Yes,” mystery man confirms.
Well … I rock on my heels, waiting for the lady in front of me to finish her order. The deli worker rounds the corner, carrying five full ziploc like bags, and places the load on the scale. A beep sounds from the machine and labels spit from the little open slit. Labels are smacked on each package before handed to the waiting lady. She thanks him and walks to drop her load into her cart. I’m next.
“I’m Liam.” The guy behind me takes a step forward, standing beside me as I move up to the counter. I look up at him; blondes are not my type, but this guy, he can pull the blonde off. I know I’m gawking, but I can’t help it he one handsome looking specimen.
“Miss?” The deli worker clears his throat, looking at me expectantly. The guy, Liam, tries to hide a laugh by coughing; I’ve been caught—not just by the guy I was admiring, but the Stop & Shop worker even saw my heart eyes! Can I go shrivel up in a corner now, please?
With cheeks ablaze, I tuck a strand of hair behind my ear, and stand on my tip-toes and to double check I see the kind of cheese mother wants in the display case. Low sodium american cheese, low sodium american cheese, low sodium american cheese, low sodium american cheese, low sodium ameri- there it is!
“Um, hi, yes.” I clear my throat. “May I get a half pound of the low sodium american cheese, please?”
“Yes ma’am.” The worker ducks his head, grabbing the cheese from its spot. I watch as he puts the cheese into the slicer and prepare the produce.
I lower back onto the balls of my feet and pivot my body so I can keep an eye on my cheese and Liam. I began studying him again, but quickly divert my attention as the embarrassment of being caught the first time rises to my cheeks.
I haven’t even introduced myself! Mentally facepalming, I stick my hand out towards the handsome guy and introduce myself. “I’m Ella.”
Liam takes my hand in his own. “Nice to meet you Ella.”
I offer the same pleasantry back to him. I don’t think cheese takes this long to slice. I look back at the worker and see he disappeared, probably going to the back room to get more baggies. I try racking my brain for another thing to say, but nothing jumps out. Neither of us are talking, do we just stand here and stare at each other or try to make conversation. Icebreakers such as ‘what’s your favorite color?’, ‘how’s the weather?’, ‘why are you here at the grocery store?’ float through my mind and I refuse to make this encounter any more awkward.
Do not say it, Ella, do not say it. “What’s your favorite color?” I blurt out. Darn it! Where did the worker go?! He needs to save me before I say something stupid, again.
The corners of his mouth turn up, “Blue,” he says. I can see that. Blue suits him very well. His eyes are blue and sparkly, and the bracelet on his wrist is navy blue, and … snap out of it, Ella!
“Blue is a nice color.” I nod my head. “I like purple.”
He laughs and I cannot help but join him. “This is awkward.” He voices the thought I have been thinking, though he says it in a way that releases the tension in my hands that I did not realize I was holding.
“Yeah,” I agree, wiping water from my eyes from laughing so hard. The beeping of the machine brings me back to the reason why I came to the store, mothers special lasagna ingredients, specifically, the cheese.
“Here you go, miss.” The worker holds out my package. I take my cheese, thanking him.
Looking at Liam, I can’t help, but feel sad that I’ll most likely never see him again. “It was nice meeting you, Liam.” I give him a wave before turning towards my cart.
In a daze, I grab my cart, plunking the produce in, and steer away. I want ice cream, I deserve to have ice cream. I am the one who came to the store to get mother ingredients for a dish I cannot eat. Welcome to the rules of having a body that cannot process lactase! Yes, ice cream has dairy, but I can handle some bathroom trips if it means I get to gorge myself on mint chocolate chip deliciousness.
Already in the frozen section, I remember a key component I was not to forget when coming here. I freeze and look for my jacket that was supposed to be hanging over the side of the cart. There’s a jacket, but it’s not mine. Kevin. Kevin is alone in the grocery store, not good.
I grab my ice cream, throw it into the cart, avoiding the eggs, and sprinted back to the deli section. My cart wheels squeak at the unexpected speed. Please do not break, please do not break. Skidding to a stop, I glance at the deli section, seeing no jacket. Crap.
Out of breath, I go up to the deli worker and ask if he has seen a cart with a jacket on it, not the one on the cart I have. I explain what my jacket looks like and realization flashes in his eyes.
“Yes. I saw your jacket. The young man you were talking to came here and asked where you went. Your carts got mixed up and he has your jacket now.” The worker points in the direction I just came from. “He went that way, miss”
I whip my head around, hoping I’ll spot Liam and my jacket. I quickly thank the deli worker and take off. I go down aisle after aisle, checking out each person’s face as I pass them. None of them have a combination of sparkling blue eyes and luscious blonde hair; did I use the word luscious? Who uses the word luscious! Oh my goodness, Ella, get yourself together!
I steer towards the bakery and pop into the first aisle in that section. They are nowhere. What on earth. They have to be here somewhere. Coming out of the aisle full of paper products, I bump carts with someone. Bumper carts. My eyes widen as my eyes take in the person in front of me with a certain someone perched on his shoulder. Liam. Liam who has my jacket. The Liam who has apparently become best friends with Kevin. Kevin. I squint my eyes at the two, trying to understand what is going on.
“Ella!” Liam sounds relieved and pleasantly surprised? A smile appears on his face as Kevin whispers something in his ear.
I blink. Once. Twice. “What?” Voicing aloud my confusion, I am met with an innocent look from the duo. “How,” the word falters. “What, how are you so calm knowing Kevin can talk?” I point at the little creature sitting on Liam’s shoulders as if it were a throne.
Liam and Kevin share a look; they did become best friends. “Once you left, I ordered what I needed and went back to my cart, or at least what I thought was my cart.” He holds up my jacket, “Apparently, we have the same jacket.”
I look at his, correction, my jacket, and then his, which is thrown into the cart haphazardly. I look down at my feet as a blush creeps up my neck.
“She’s getting flustered.” Kevin all but sings.
I snap my head up and glare at the salamander. “Can it, Kevin.”
Liam laughs. “Anyway, when a little someone,” he glances at Kevin. “Poked his head out of your jacket pocket, I realized the cart wasn’t mine. The items in the cart should have been a dead give-a-away, but my mind was thinking about the beautiful girl I met earlier.” Liam looks at me and my heart flutters as my cheeks burn a brighter shade of red.
“Kevin helped me find you.” Liam leans closer, lowering his voice, “He did not help all that much.” Kevin scoffs. “But, he did talk on and on about you about how amazing you are.”
“With all Kevn had said, I want to get to know you, know who the real Ella is. So, I was wondering if you would like to catch breakfast tomorrow morning?”
My eyes meet his. “I would love to.”
We swap carts and coats. Kevin jumps back into my pocket, claiming he needs a nap. Nap is his code word for eavesdropping. We make our way to the checkout and pay for our groceries. The bagger hands me my bags and I put the cart back with the others. I wait for Liam to finish with his transaction. Once he finishes, he walks me to my car. What a gentlemen. I look up at the sky and smile; if mom was still here, she would like Liam. We get to my car and he helps unloads the bags into the truck.
“Thank you, for the help, and for returning Kevin.”
Liam shrugs, hands in his pockets, “It was no problem. Besides, I was given another chance to get work up the nerve to ask you out, so I am grateful for the cart mixup.” The wind muses his hair, flying strands onto his face. “I’ll see you tomorrow at ten a.m at Delilah’s?”
“I’ll see you then.” A smiles takes over my face as I wave goodbye. I climb into my car, look to make sure Liam is far enough away, and let out a girly squeal. I’m going on a date! I tap my fingers on the steering wheel, biting my lip.
“You seem excited.” Kevin pipes up, climbing out of my pocket and onto my arm.
“I’m ready for my happily ever after.”
“You deserve one.” Kevin jumps from my forearm into the cupholder, snuggling into the baby hat I placed there for him.
Write with Alice 